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AECT Council for Systemic Change

Minutes
November 15, 2002
Dallas, TX

Attendance
Introduction
Meeting

Statement of Mission
How Change became a Council rather than a Division
Alternative Presentation Formats
Why are people not at this meeting? A Systemic View
What is systemic change?
Marketing the Change Council
Emergence of Two-Pronged Approach
What type of communication is needed?
Continued Marketing Strategies

Elections
Adjournment

Attendance

Member

Email

Jim Ellsworth

jbelsworth@aol.com

Dave Popp

davepopp@psu.edu

Stephanie Roberts

Stephanie.Roberts@unco.edu

Kathy Sindt

ksindt@msubillings.edu

Debra Dirksen

drddirk@aol.com

Deborah Bauder

dbauder@romecsd.org

Barbara Rosenfield

rosenfel@cybernex.net

Josh Kirby

jak413@psu.edu

Michael Savoy

mrs331@psu.edu

Roberto Joseph

rojoseph@indiana.edu

Charlie Reigeluth

reigelut@indiana.edu

Joanne Bentley

kiwi@cc.usu.edu

Sari Pascoe

spascoe@indiana.edu

Daniel Pascoe

dpascoe@indiana.edu

Melda N. Yil Diz

yildizm@wpunj.edu

Wes Leggett

wes@wesleggett.com

 

Introduction by Jim Ellsworth

The single greatest problem facing AECT and the Council for Systemic Change is member communications. It is easy to leave and have no sense of being apart of things until the next conference. We have a mammoth and static website. There was some discussion as to the reason the website has remained static for two years. There have been some miscommunication problems or technical difficulties that have made it difficult for communication officers to gain access to update the site.

Meeting

Jim had to leave, so Debra Dirksen continued the meeting.

The desire was expressed that we build a society of community here. Foster a community and collaboration. We need to have civil rules of engagement and follow those.

Statement of Mission -- Charlie Reigeluth

Charlie Reigeluth provided a statement of the mission of the Council for Systemic Change from the foundation. Charlie indicated that much of the motivation was a feeling that for technology to be able to reach its potential contribution to education, that there was a fundamental need to look at it’s effect and distribution across education. Technology allows us to transform learning and the classroom. We need to talk about transformation rather than integration. Many approaches have been piecemeal. Things are not changing because there are parts that are being systemically ignored. There was a real need to raise awareness within the association, nationally, and internationally about the need for systemic thinking for bring about change in education. There is a need to think about a more comprehensive approach to systemic change. Our primary approach was to help members to understand what Systemic Change is and enhance our knowledge within that area.

The emphasis is not just on change in education, but systemic change. Looking at those interrelationships.

One function is for each of us to share with each other what we know and what we learn. But we need to go beyond, serving a broader function of helping others within the organization. Helping the other divisions to understand why systemic change is important to them. Systemic Change is an important issue for all AECT members. Issues of organizational change are important to what they are going to do. I’d like to see this division assume a leadership role in helping create an interest within the organization and the broader community.

How Change became a Council rather than a Division -- Debra Dirksen

Debra discussed the idea that was presented by Jim Ellsworth and Jason Ravitz, where research would be posted to a listserv and a discussion carried out over 1, 2, or 3 months. Jason has volunteered to provide current research.

Alternative Presentation Formats? -- Barbara Rosenfield

Barbara asked about the idea of creating alternative presentation formats, which was discussed in Denver, 2000. A brief discussion ensued regarding the alternative formats that were attempted in last years Atlanta Conference, 2001

Why are people not at this meeting? A Systemic View -- Stephanie Roberts

Stephanie suggested that we think systemically about why people aren’t here in this membership meeting. A lot of the reason people aren’t here is because they’re not aware that we’re here. I would first challenge this group to think about this systemically, how do we generate that awareness. How do we get the information into their hands? How do we get Systemic Change content into the degree programs at a very basic level, so that all the programs are providing their students with information about change research?

What is systemic change? -- Deb and Charlie

There were some questions about what systemic change is, Debra provided a brief explanation of approaching change by involving all stakeholders within an organization. Charlie continued by adding that there is a fundamental notion that different learners learn at different rates. By holding time constant we’re forcing achievement to vary. If we want to focus on learning, we have to hold achievement constant, then we force time to vary, and no one is left behind. Everything is time based. The focus is on sorting. The assessment system forces this. We need to look at the assessment system so that it is a check off that everyone meets over time and affects the whole system.

Marketing the Change Council -- Joanne Bentley

Joanne commented that it seems we need to be looking at marketing of the change council and position ourselves with other divisions, helping them to understand why they should care about systemic change.

Articles in Tech Trend

Guest editorial in other division newsletters, how are we related to what you are.

Then recruit people.

Schedule divisions and councils at different times.

Joanne is taking the lead on marketing, an article for tech trends, with volunteers from Council Members who are members of other divisions to write a piece on their division and change. Infomercial piece.

TechTrends to be devoted to change

Emergence of Two-Pronged Approach -- Stephanie Roberts

There is a lack of dialogue on interaction and collaboration. We need to engage people with each other, discuss research gaps, and what things we need to be addressing. There needs to be open conversation. We need to create interactive rather than static instruments. Combine the best of a bulletin board and the best of a listserv. Archive information like a bulletin board as well as the benefit of the immediacy and dynamic nature of the listserv. Combine bulletin board with a listserv. Build in a function and a query. Summarize and a digest is delivered to a listserv.

What type of communication is needed?

What kinds of communications do we want to be facilitating, along with a nice marketing strategy that goes beyond Tech Trends. We need to develop a whole communications structure that all interested could participate in and utilize.The following volunteered to work on the communication initiative:

David Popp

Stephanie Roberts

Chris Essex

Jason Ravitz

Continued Marketing Strategies

It was suggest that we have some sessions here at the conference on what change classes look like – panel – bring it on to peoples radar screens about why they should care about Systemic Change. Create the awareness in the graduate students so that they’ll ask for a class in Systemic Change to be part of their programs. Sponsor a workshop on systemic change – about the course and then how do you get students to care about or want to take the class.

We should get students enrolled in existing Change classes to enroll on to the list, and get faculty across the country who teach Change courses to support and use the list.
Add a resource area to the website where we can place syllabi and other resources from existing courses.

We should post things to other forums, for instance the IT Forum, post to another forum with a large readership – gather a momentum. Find another audience that we can use to lure people into our discussions.

We should post foundational documents on the web site if they are not already there.

Sari questioned, are we prepared to sustain these efforts?
Elections

Election will be conducted electronically, and will be completed no later than Dec 16. Debra Dirksen will send election results to all members.Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 5:50 p.m.

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